


Foxglove and Radishes

by vitamind20



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Campaign 1 (Critical Role), F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-06 06:59:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14636502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vitamind20/pseuds/vitamind20
Summary: Vex'ahlia runs a shelter for homeless youth, and Keyleth is a university student doing a community outreach project. They meet, and even if Vex thinks Keyleth's a little weird, she's sweet and enthusiastic. But Keyleth's friend is another story, and when Vex remembers where she's heard the name de Rolo, she wonders if getting involved with these people is a good idea.





	1. Chapter 1

The campus cafe is louder and busier than Vex’ahlia would’ve liked.

She’s used to crowds and she’s used to noise, but there’s something about places being densely packed with _students_ that makes it so much worse. It’s not just a cafe, it’s the cafe at the university, and Vex doesn’t need reminding that college was more than five years ago for her.

It’s not the age thing - she’s in a much better place now than she was back then, and she knows it. But something about seeing freshmen with brightly coloured lanyards around their necks is reminding her of a part of her life she’d rather not remember.

She’s doing better now, and she can’t lose focus.

Vex is as prepared for this meeting as it’s possible to be. She showed up early, knowing there’d be a long line for coffee. She waited until one a table in one of the quieter areas was available, then moved there. She read over her notes. She’s got this.

She knows she’s not the ideal candidate. The Facebook post was advertising a community garden project run by one of the university’s students. It talked less about actually growing food than it did about teaching environmental sustainability; Vex expects a middle school is probably closer to what they were looking for. Or a Boy Scout group. Or _something_.

She doubts the organizer had even considered a youth shelter before Vex had emailed her. But she could do a lot of good with this, and save a lot of money while she did it.

She’s rereading the application she’d sent in about how they could benefit from the program, reminding herself of her strongest arguments, when someone stops next to her booth.

“Vex’ahlia?”

Vex looks up from her notes to see a tall man standing at the edge of the table. He’s dressed like an old professor, but Vex imagines he can’t be older than thirty-five. He certainly doesn’t look like he fits the name Vex had for him, nor the tone of the emails she’d been exchanging with the project’s organizer.

All the same, she stands from the table and stretches out her hand. “Keyleth?”

“Percival,” he corrects her, laughing a little. He sets down the two drinks he’s carrying and shakes her hand. “I apologize, Keyleth is running a few minutes behind and didn’t want to keep you waiting.”

“No problem,” Vex says, and she sits back down in the booth. Percival sits across from her, and Vex is stuck wondering why Keyleth sent her professor (project advisor?) to greet her. She hasn’t seen anyone else that looked like faculty in the cafe, and the blue sweater and collared dress shirt seem especially out of place. Half the students Vex saw were wearing sweatpants, and none of them had anything close to his bright white hair.

“I’m really excited about this opportunity,” Vex says, trying not to lose her rhythm. This was unexpected, and all of her rehearsed answers were based on what she thought Keyleth would want to hear. Her professor probably thinks a lot differently, and she’ll have to improvise. It'll be fine. “We may not be the most likely candidate,” she starts, but Percival cuts her off.

“I apologize,” he says, “but we’d best wait for Keyleth. I’m really not involved with this, and I don’t want to make you have to repeat everything.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Vex says, flatly. “You’re not involved with this? I thought you might have been her professor or her project supervisor.”

“I really do give off that energy, don’t I?” Percival says, more to himself than to Vex. He smiles a little, then asks, “is it the hair?”

“The sweater,” Vex replies, and Percival lets out a quiet laugh.

“I’m a student here,” Percival clarifies, “but I study engineering, not environment. I’m a friend of Keyleth’s.”

“Oh, cool,” Vex says. She’s definitely off her rhythm now. “What kind of engineering?”

“Biomedical right now, but I’ve studied some chemical and mechanical engineering in the past,” Percival says.

Vex smiles and takes a sip of her coffee. It tastes terrible. She hadn’t prepared for small talk with a university student that had nothing to do with this project anyway. “What made you switch to biomedical, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Percival makes a face like he very much _does_ mind her asking, but it’s replaced almost immediately by the same gentle smile he’s been wearing since he sat down. “I think I can do more with it,” he says, but the words feel weighted as he says them.

Before he can elaborate - before Vex has time to wonder why his answer sounded so guarded to such a simple question - a woman walks over to their table. With a quick glance, Vex decides that this is exactly what a person named Keyleth would look like.

“You must be Vex’ahlia!” the woman says. Her long, green skirt and the golden bangles on her wrists make her stand out almost as much as Percival, but at least she still looks like a student. “I’m Keyleth.”

Vex stands and reaches her hand out for another handshake, but Keyleth leans forward and hugs her instead.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Vex says when they separate.

“And you!” Keyleth says, gently pushing Percival’s shoulder until he slides over in the booth, giving her more space. “I see you’ve met Percy,” she says as she sits down. “I’m sorry I was running late, I was going to call you but I don’t have your phone number.”

“It’s fine,” Vex says, sitting back down and sliding her notes back in front of her. “I don’t mind. It’s kind of nice being back on a college campus.” Both sentences are lies, but it doesn’t matter. Vex needs Keyleth to like her.

“It’s the best,” Keyleth says, and Vex almost feels bad for how sincere she sounds. “Should we get started? I hope you don’t mind if Percy sits with us.”

“Not at all,” Vex says. Another lie, really. He makes her a little uneasy, and at this point she’s so thrown off her rhythm she wonders if there was any point in preparing at all.

“Great! Then let’s get started.”

 

Keyleth details the project for her. She’s planning on building a large garden and working with the participants to plant fruits, vegetables, and flowers. She’s being given a budget to work with, so the cost of all the materials, tools, and seeds will be covered. Over the spring and summer, the kids will learn how to raise easy plants like these and, in Keyleth’s words, “just really start to understand all the earth does for us and what we can do for Her.”

It’s some hippie shit, but Vex doesn’t mind.

Keyleth admits she was thinking more about a middle school class or church youth group than a drop-in shelter for homeless teenagers, but she seems genuinely excited about working with the kids at the shelter (although Vex gets the idea Keyleth is genuinely excited about most things). Vex spends only a little bit of time talking about how much off their grocery bill the project could offset (the main thing that attracted Vex to the project). She knows Keyleth is more interested in the educational aspect of it, and she plays that up as much as she can. 

Percival - or Percy, as Keyleth calls him - stays mostly silent through the meeting, and seems to be there mostly for moral support for Keyleth. The questions he does ask are much more logistical and critical than Keyleth’s, but Vex prepared for those.

Eventually, Keyleth quiets for a second, skimming over the sheet of paper she has in front of her before turning to Percy. “I think that’s everything, right Percy?”

“I believe so,” he says. “Thanks for meeting with us, Vex’ahlia.”

“Vex is fine,” she replies with a smile. “It was nice meeting you, Percival, Keyleth.”

“Oh, you can call him Percy,” Keyleth says, looking back down at her notes. “I keep telling him to introduce himself as Percy. Did he give you the other names too?” she adds, looking up at Vex.

“The other names?”

“There are another ten names in there before you even get to de Rolo,” she explains.

“Percy’s fine,” Percy interjects, quickly and impatiently. “You should be hearing back from us within the week.” That patient smile and polite voice are gone, and he seems to be deliberately avoiding eye contact with Vex.

“Yes!” Keyleth says, reaching her hand across the table for a handshake, seemingly oblivious to Percy’s tone. “Thanks so much for your time!”

Vex shakes her hand and forces another smile. “Thanks for your consideration,” she adds, collecting her things and standing up from the table.

Despite Percy's weird reaction, she feels good about the meeting. Before she's even out of earshot, she can hear Keyleth say, “Percy, I think that went really well!”

 

Vex throws her keys on the table as she walks into her apartment. Before she has the chance to kick off her shoes, a large, dark brown dog is running up to her and nuzzling at her leg. His head is almost as high as Vex’s waist, and his long fur covers a lot of his eyes.

“Hi Trinket,” Vex coos, rubbing his head. Her brother makes fun of her sometimes for talking to her dog like he’s a baby, but Trinket likes it. “Did you miss me?”

Trinket responds by licking her hand. She lets him for a second, then pats his head again, leading him into the rest of the apartment.

She can hear the water running in the bathroom and walks over, knocking on the door. “Vax, I’m home!”

The door to the bathroom opens and Vax stands in the doorway, wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants and brushing his teeth. He says something that Vex assumes would have sounded like “how’d it go?” if his mouth hadn’t been full of toothpaste.

“Good, I think,” Vex says. She pats the couch and waits for Trinket to jump up before laying down on it herself. “The project coordinator is a little weird, and she brought her friend with her, who was even weirder. But they seem nice!”

“Weird how?” Vax tries to say, his mouth still full of toothpaste. He turns around back into the bathroom for a second, and Vex waits until she hears the tap turn off before answering.

“The project coordinator, Keyleth, dresses like such a hippie, it’s wild. You know those people you look at and just _know_ are vegan? Tall, thin, the whole thing. Sweet though, and excitable like a little kid.”

“And the friend?” Vax asks.

“Somehow the opposite,” Vex says. She’s mostly just looking at the ceiling, and she hears the floor creak as Vax walks into his bedroom, presumably to get dressed. “Dresses like a seventy-year-old professor with too much money,” Vex continues a little louder, “and his hair’s completely white. I think he might be like, twenty-five, just really unlucky. He kind of acts like it too. Formal and stuff. Probably comes from money. Nice overall though!”

“Do you think you’ll get it?” Vax shouts from his room.

“I have a good feeling!”

Vax reappears around the corner, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt for some band Vex has never really bothered to listen to. “Well, if you have to keep working with these weirdos, at least they’re nice weirdos.”

“Yeah. I hope I don’t have to meet them on campus again, though. I don’t know how you handle being surrounded by students all the time, it’s awful.”

“The money, Vex’ahlia,” he says. "Students tip well, if inconsistently."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but that might not even be worth it." Vex sits up on the couch, looking at Vax. "Do we know anybody named de Rolo?"

Vax pauses for a second, thinking. "I don't think so, why?"

"That's Rich Boy's name. Percy de Rolo. He got weird about it when Keyleth told me his last name, and I was wondering why. It's ringing some very, very distant bells."

"Probably a TV show character or something," Vax says dismissively. "Who cares? Like you said, he's not even really involved with the whole thing, so you probably won't have to see him again."

"I guess," Vex says, then lays back down.

She’s thinking about which TV shows she might have seen with a character named de Rolo when her phone chimes from her pocket. She pulls it out and sees an email notification on her lock screen.

She turns the phone to Vax, showing him the alert. "Email from Keyleth," she says. "Probably just thanking me for the meeting, it's barely been an hour."

She unlocks her phone, then taps the email.

From: kashari@uemon.edu  
To: vex@emonyouthshelter.com  
Subject: Community Garden Project

Cynthia,  
Thank you for meeting with us. Girl Scouts is an excellent organization, and we are happy to have your support. Unfortunately, we have decided to partner with a different organization for this project.  
We hope you continue to foster an interest in agriculture and environmental sustainability within your group regardless, and thank you for your interest in our project.  
Sincerely,  
Keyleth Ashari

Vex reads the email and laughs a little. It definitely sounds like Percy wrote it; Vex can imagine him dictating to Keyleth, who must not have noticed she'd responded to the wrong email.

"Did you get it?" Vax asks, moving over to the couch and sitting down next to Vex.

"She must have responded to the wrong email," Vex laughs, passing over the phone. "She seemed like the type of person who would do that, honestly."

"And you're choosing to work with her?"

"She seemed sweet," Vex says, a little defensively. "And besides, it's a great opportunity."

There's probably no good way to handle this situation, and she thinks Keyleth likes her, so she replies right away.

From: vex@emonyouthshelter.com  
To: kashari@uemon.edu  
Subject: Re: Community Garden

Hi Keyleth,  
I enjoyed learning more about the project over coffee today, as well as meeting you and Percy. However, I think you may have sent this to the wrong person.   
Thanks again,  
Vex'ahlia

She reads over the email a few times before sending it. Yeah, that's probably the best way to handle this.

"Don't you need to get going?" Vex says after clicking her phone off.

"I do." Vax stands up from the couch, walking through their apartment to the hallway by the door. "I'll be home late, okay? Don't eat my chips or drink my beer. I love you."

"Love you," Vex calls down toward the front door.

She sighs and rubs the fur on Trinket's head a little as she hears the door close. "Well, what do you think buddy? Let's go for a walk before dinner?"

Trinket barks a little, nuzzling her hand, but Vex doesn't even have an opportunity to grab his leash before her phone chimes again.

From: kashari@uemon.edu  
To: vex@emonyouthshelter.com  
Subject: Re: Community Garden

Hi Vex,  
I'm soooo sorry, yes, that's what happened. Percy said I should let the unsuccessful applicants know before the successful ones, but I was so excited that I'd already started emailing you, and I guess I forgot to change who I was sending the email to! My apologies!!!  
K

Now, that looks like an email written by Keyleth.

From: vex@emonyouthshelter.com  
To: kashari@uemon.edu  
Subject: Re: Community Garden

Hi Keyleth,  
It happens! So, was I the successful candidate? :)  
Vex

She debates the smiley face for a little while but ultimately decides Keyleth would appreciate it.

From: kashari@uemon.edu  
To: vex@emonyouthshelter.com  
Subject: Re: Community Garden

Vex,  
Yes!!! Sorry, I should have mentioned that!!! Can you give me your phone number so we don't have to keep using email?  
Thanks,  
K

Vex smiles and replies quickly with her phone number before texting Vax to let him know that she got it after all.

“Alright Trinket, how about that walk?”

 

Vex takes Trinket out for his walk, enjoying the crisp March air. She texts Keyleth, and they work out a time for Keyleth to visit the youth shelter. They’ll plan everything out then, and Keyleth will have the chance to see their yard and plan how to use the space.

She feels great and stays out longer than she normally would have. She can’t help it, she’s too happy to be sitting in her apartment with just Trinket right now.

By the time Vex gets back to the apartment, the sun is starting to set. She unclips the leash from Trinket’s collar, and Trinket immediately slumps down in his bed, exhausted from the long walk.

She cooks herself a quick dinner, and an hour later, she’s curled up on the couch with Trinket. She’s lost interest in whatever she’s watching, but a well-timed commercial for a chocolate bar reminds Vex that she’d meant to find out where she’d heard the name de Rolo before.

She pulls out her phone and types in the name. The first thing Google suggests is some kind of Brazilian cake, and under that, a bunch of news articles. She taps the News tab while her stomach lurches, just reading the headlines.

_Massive fire at Whitestone Pharmaceuticals kills 45_

_Death toll rises to 52 as Whitestone CEO Frederick de Rolo dies in hospital_

_Entire de Rolo family at Whitestone factory during deadly fire, says witness_

The headlines continue on, and Vex can’t bring herself to tap on any of them. Eventually, she exits out of her web browser and clicks her phone off, staring at the ceiling.

That’s why his name had been familiar. Vex vaguely remembers hearing of the accident. It was years ago now - just over five years, according to the dates on the news articles - and the details come back to her in horrifying flashes.

The image next to the article about Frederick de Rolo looked so much like Percy, though his hair was grey, not white. Percy was studying biomedical engineering, and his family had owned a pharmaceutical company. And she’d only met Percy briefly, but she could easily see him being from that kind of old-money family.

She tosses her phone to the other end of the couch. If it’s over there, she won’t be tempted to spend the next three hours satisfying her morbid curiosity. She decides she doesn’t want to know. Her phone chimes a few minutes later, and she ignores it.

She falls asleep there, her head resting against Trinket. When she awakens, it’s to Vax gently shaking her shoulder.

“Vex, it’s three in the morning,” he whispers, his voice full of concern, “and I really want to watch TV, so please go to bed.”

Vex blinks at him, then nods, slowly standing up from the couch. She grabs her phone and heads to her bedroom, and barely manages to undress before falling onto her bed.

She doesn’t check her phone until the morning.

 _From: Keyleth_ _  
_ _hey so percy’s gonna come next week too, i hope that’s ok!!_


	2. Chapter 2

It’s the day of Keyleth and Percy’s visit and Vex hasn’t sat down.

She normally doesn’t help out with programming as much as the support workers do, but today she offered to both cook lunch and clean up. She told two of the kids living there not to worry about sweeping and doing the dishes - she’d take care of it.

She's nervous. It helps to be too busy to think.

If she has the time and energy to think, she’ll think about what she read about Percy’s family. Something is off with him, something isn’t quite right, and Vex not being able to put her finger on exactly what just makes it worse.

Despite how little hands-on work she has the chance to do these days, she loves the shelter and the services they provide for the kids. They’re vulnerable and Vex’s job is to give them stability until they can move out and make it on their own. She doesn’t know if she wants to bring Percy into that environment.

But the doorbell rings, right on time, and Vex opens the door to see both Percy and Keyleth.

“Welcome,” Vex says, trying to smile. “Come on in!”

She tries not to watch as Keyleth and Percy look around the entryway and living room. Are they criticizing her because the TV they have is pretty nice, or are they wondering how she lives with herself when the shelter has such old couches? Is the place clean enough? Too clean?

Vex tries to push the thoughts from her head. She’s not worried about this with anybody else - this whole thing has put her on edge. She’s not usually like this.

“We can talk in here,” Vex says, pushing open the door to her office.

_ Office _ was probably being generous. Stacks of paper towel, toilet paper, and boxes of groceries cluttered the space. At the very back was a small desk with a folding chair behind it, with barely enough room to sit down and stand up. Vex had brought in two more folding chairs and set them in front of the desk. Two large filing cabinets sat against one wall, each covered in several more boxes.

“I’m sorry, it’s a little cramped in here,” Vex says, still maintaining her smile.

“Is this your office?” Percy asks. Vex can’t tell how much derision is in his tone and she hates it.

“We don’t have as much space as we’d like,” Vex replies, because it sounds better than  _ yes _ would have. “We converted our old office. We were able to add two beds to the home, and that’s a big deal.” She sits down behind her desk and gestures to the two folding chairs.

“You seem to have a lot of,” Keyleth starts, looking around the room, “a lot of things.”

“We have a very limited budget,” Vex says. She’s willing to give Keyleth the benefit of the doubt here and knows she probably wasn’t trying to offend. “I use a lot of coupons, I find sales and stock up on things.”

“Oh!” Keyleth says, like the idea of buying things on sale is completely new to her. Vex wonders what kind of childhood Keyleth had. “Oh, that makes sense! Do you handle all of the groceries and stuff?”

“I handle a lot of the finances,” Vex says. “I’m good at finding discounts and stretching our budget as much as possible. I also help secure funding and donations. I do some other administrative stuff, but honestly, running this place on this kind of budget takes up most of my day.”

Percy gives Vex a concerned look over his glasses and it makes Vex furious. She works really hard to do this and he’s probably never had to work for anything in his life -

“Maybe you’d be able to help us, then!” Keyleth says, pulling Vex from her thoughts. “We drew up a rough budget based on the money I’m being given for the project but maybe you could help us reduce a few of these costs?”

“Of course.” Vex smiles at Keyleth as Keyleth tries to pull her laptop out of her bag. Her chair is very close to Vex’s desk, not leaving her a lot of room. Eventually, she pulls it out, sets it on an empty few inches of the desk, and turns it on.

Keyleth opens a document then turns the screen around so Vex can see.

The spreadsheet they had made was very technically satisfying - Vex loves a good spreadsheet - but the numbers in the columns horrify her.

There is absolutely no way she’s paying ten dollars for each pair of gardening gloves and twenty dollars for shovels.

Vex doesn’t realize she’s staring until she hears Keyleth politely ask, “do you think there’s anywhere we could save some money?”

“I don’t want to seem ungrateful,” Vex starts, slow and deliberate, “but would you mind if I helped you do the shopping for the supplies? Some of this stuff is very expensive and I’m sure I could find cheaper elsewhere. I just want to make sure as much of this money is reaching the kids as possible.”

“Oh my god.” Vex watches as Keyleth visibly deflates. Both she and Percy look more relieved than she thinks she’s ever seen two people look. “Could you? I’m really not good at budgeting, Percy isn’t either - why are watering cans so expensive?” Keyleth turns her head to look at Percy, who nods frantically. “They gave us so little to work with!”

“Dirt can’t cost this much money,” Vex says, scrolling down the list on the spreadsheet. “I’m sure I could help you here.”

Percy smiles - a big, genuine  _ smile _ , too, not just the polite one he’d worn during their meeting the week before - and claps his hands together. “Then we’ll do that!” he says, almost shouting. “You’ll help us! We can all do the shopping together, I imagine?”

Vex laughs a little, delighted at how relieved the two of them are to not have to worry about this. She knows Percy comes from money, but she wasn’t sure about Keyleth before this. “Yes, we’ll do the shopping together,” she agrees, smiling. “Before that, I should give you a tour and show you the space we’ll be working with.”

 

It’s about an hour later when Percy and Keyleth eventually leave and the visit had only gotten better. Vex had watched as Keyleth practically danced around the yard, shouting out to Percy and Vex where the best places would be for the apple tree sapling she had her eye on, or where a flowerbed could go. 

She had argued with Keyleth about the comparative need for a flowerbed - she thinks produce would be much more useful - but Keyleth is way more passionate about it than she is and Vex worries that disappointing her might make her feel like she’s kicked a puppy.

Percy takes some measurements with a tape measure he’d brought, sketching a few things in a notebook. The drawings Vex can see are detailed and precise - much more than is necessary for something as simple as digging a garden. Vex watches as he sat on the grass, marking up the sketches with measurements in small, neat handwriting.

It helps whatever bad feelings she was getting from him. He may be the son of an evil billionaire capitalist who - Vex can’t quite remember, but she’s sure some news of some shady things came out after the accident - but he looks like he really cares for Keyleth. He has no other investment in this project other than her, it’s sweet to see him work so hard and earnestly at it.

Surely someone like that isn’t completely bad?

 

Keyleth and Percy pick her up at nine o’clock the next morning. It’s Saturday, which means they have the day off school and Vex has the day off work. What better way to spend it than working?

When Percy’s car pulls into the parking lot outside Vex’s apartment, she opens the door to the back seat and slides in.

“I thought we’d hit the dollar store first and see what we can find there,” Vex suggests, “and if the dollar store brand isn’t cutting it for something in particular, we can pick that up somewhere else.”

“That sounds good,” Keyleth says, turning around to look at Vex. “Do you know where there’s a dollar store? Should I look it up on my phone?”

Vex closes her eyes for a second, holding back a small laugh. “There’s one just up the road from here,” she says instead. She wonders if Percy or Keyleth have ever stepped into a dollar store before.

She gets her answer five minutes later, after giving Percy directions to the Dollar Tree.

Vex picks up a basket as Keyleth flits down the aisles, Percy following close behind. She comes back to Vex with a large, metal sunflower decoration. “Do you know how much this is? I couldn’t see a tag-”

“It’s a dollar,” Vex states. She smiles a little, worried about offending her.

“Everything is a dollar?”

“Everything is a dollar.” 

They walk to the gardening section and Vex throws a few pairs of ugly, floral printed gloves in the basket, along with a few garden trowels. Keyleth picks out a few watering cans and adds them, too. They walk down the rest of the aisle, but nothing else is jumping out to Vex as particularly useful.

“Vex, do you mind if we check out the rest of the store?” Percy asks quietly while Keyleth carefully examines a large stone frog garden decoration.

“Not at all,” Vex replies. As Keyleth turns to her, still holding the frog in her hand and looking excited, Vex adds, “and we can get the frog, if you like.”

Keyleth looks over the moon for someone who’s just been allowed to spend her own money, but it makes Vex happy. She sees Percy smiling too.

Keyleth doesn’t let go of the frog as they walk through the rest of the store. Percy goes back for a basket of his own, though, and he and Keyleth pick out a few things they need for their apartment.

Keyleth picks out some bag clips that look like alligators and a new pair of oven mitts and Percy picks up a new set of measuring spoons. When they walk down the stationary aisle, Percy ends up almost running over to a shelf full of notebooks.

“These are a dollar?” he demands, looking back at Vex.

“Still yes,” Vex replies.

“They sell these exact notebooks in the lab store for almost five dollars,” he mutters, more to himself than to Vex - Vex is noticing that he does that a lot - as he flips through the book.

He tosses one into his basket then walks a few steps back toward Vex, before changing his mind, walking back to the shelf, and grabbing the rest of the notebooks he was looking at.

“I do a lot of writing in the lab,” he says sheepishly as Vex raises her eyebrows at him.

He grabs a few packages of pencils, setting them carefully on top of the pile of notebooks, then walks toward the cash registers at the front.

They pay for the items in two transactions - Percy has to politely remind Keyleth to get a receipt for the gardening stuff separately, but insists on paying for his and Keyleth’s stuff together. Keyleth looks like she’s going to interject, but glances at Vex and decides otherwise.

Vex wonders what that’s about.

They load the bags up in the back of Percy’s car. As Keyleth gets back into the passenger seat, she almost yells, “does this mean we can go to the garden centre next?”

 

If Vex had thought Keyleth was a little airheaded - she  _ didn’t _ , of course, but  _ if she did  _ \- she would have changed her mind after seeing Keyleth at the garden centre, surrounded by tables and tables full of plants.

Keyleth darts among the tables almost like she had at the dollar store, but it seems much more organized here, almost choreographed. She asks Vex and Percy their opinion between a few different herbs and vegetables a few times, but when either of them do have a thought - which they mostly don’t - Keyleth disregards it. She examines each plant carefully, smelling a few, and within half an hour, their cart is full of small plastic containers. Most of them have herbs and vegetables, but Vex didn’t argue when she saw Keyleth add a few flowers.

They’re walking between two tables as Keyleth begins to wind down and Vex is beginning to warm up a little bit. She’s been looking at the little plant tags and, she has to admit, starting to see the appeal in a lot of these plants.

“These look pretty,” she has, tilting the tag so Percy and Keyleth could see it. The seedling was fairly unremarkable - small green leaves Vex didn’t think looked particularly pretty - but the picture showed large, bright pink tube-shaped flowers.

“That’s foxglove!” Keyleth exclaimed, looking at the tag. “They’re so pretty. Really poisonous though, and I don’t think these would flower properly until next year, but-”

“I know foxglove!” Percy interrupts. He looks at Keyleth - who looks startled at the interruption - and blushes a little. “I mean,” he stammers, “I’m familiar with it? Digoxin is made from foxglove.”

“What’s digoxin?” Vex asks.

“It’s a heart medication,” Percy says. He’s not looking at Vex, but instead at the plant itself. “It’s a really old drug - I mean,  _ really _ old - it’s not that common anymore, as far as I know. It’s really easy to screw up the dose, there’s not much room for error there - that’s why beta blockers are usually used instead - do you know what a therapeutic index is?”

“No,” Vex says, blankly. Percy is still looking at the plant instead of her.

“It’s the difference between how much of something you need for it to work, and how much you need for it to be dangerous,” he continues, examining the leaves. “You want things with wide indices. Opiates, for example - you wouldn’t  _ think _ so but there’s a huge space there. If you’re supposed to take two milligrams of hydromorphone, for example, but take four - you’ll probably be fine. If you take double your dose of digoxin, you’ll probably  _ not _ be fine.”

Vex just blinks at him.

“Alcohol has a fairly narrow one too,” Percy says, straightening up and looking at Vex. “That’s why it’s easy for people to get sick, even when they didn’t think they drank that much.”

“Oh,” is all Vex can think of to say. She’s pretty sure this is the most Percy’s ever said to her.

She can’t look at Percy, so she looks back at the seedling. “Keyleth, you said this wouldn’t flower until next year?”

“I think so,” Keyleth says, seemingly unphased by Percy’s explanation. “But if you like it, we should get it.”

“Sure,” Vex says. “It’d be nice to keep the garden going.”

 

By the time they finish shopping, it’s getting to be late in the afternoon. Vex had wanted to avoid going to a proper hardware store - they’re expensive - but the dollar store didn’t have shovels, and the garden centre’s soil was unreasonably priced.

All of them are getting hungry so they decide to stop for lunch.

“We’re way under budget,” Percy says as he totals up the day’s receipts. He clicks off his phone he’d been using as a calculator and looks up at Vex. “You’re really good at this, Vex.”

It doesn’t sound patronizing the way Vex might have expected of someone telling her she’s good at doing things cheaply. Percy’s smart, even if he is a little oblivious to some things.

“Thanks,” Vex says, winking a little. She has to admit, both Keyleth and Percy are growing on her and she had a genuinely good time shopping with them today. Both of them are a little eccentric, but they’re not  _ dangerous _ . Vex feels both guilty and embarrassed for feeling so wary of Percy the week before.

“You are good at this!” Keyleth agrees, her mouth full of salad. “Maybe you can help Percy, he’s been-”

Percy makes a choking noise, and Keyleth stops. “Sorry,” she says, instead.

“It’s quite alright,” Percy responds.

“Is there something I can help with?”

Percy looks at Vex, then at Keyleth.

“I’ve been in school a long time,” he says slowly, like he’s choosing each word carefully. “Tuition here is expensive. I didn’t think it was something I would have to worry about, but that may be changing.”

“Percy doesn’t know how to save money,” Keyleth says.

Percy makes a pained look and blushes again, similarly to the way he did at the garden centre.

“I could help with that,” Vex offers.

Percy takes a breath. “That’s very kind of you,” he starts, “but it’s not necessary. I’ll be finished my Master’s at the end of the term and after that, I’ll figure something out.”

“Percy,” Keyleth says, sounding worried.

“If you change your mind, let me know,” Vex says. “The offer is there.”

“Thank you,” Percy says, returning to his sandwich.

“I had a lot of fun with you guys today,” Vex says, trying to dispel some of the tension. “I’m glad we did this together.”

“Me too,” Keyleth says, beaming at her. “We should hang out! You know, outside of this.”

“I’d love to,” Vex says, and she’s pretty certain she means it.

“How about after this?” Keyleth asks. “Percy and I don’t have anything else going on today, we could hang out at our apartment if you want.”

Vex looks at Percy, worried, but he seems to have recovered from Keyleth airing his money problems in front of Vex.

“That’d be lovely,” he says. “Otherwise, I’m going to feel obligated to go into the lab and get some work done, and it’s particularly depressing on Saturday nights.”

Keyleth looks just delighted.

 

The three of them arrive at Percy and Keyleth’s apartment and, together, carry most of the bags up. Keyleth had decided the soil and larger tools would be fine staying in the car, but the plants absolutely had to come upstairs. 

“We’re not planting you til Wednesday,” she says to them, balancing a large cardboard tray on one arm. “You need babysitting, you need someone to water you!”

Vex glances at Percy, who meets her eye and smiles.

The apartment looks a lot like Vex had expected it to. There are plants everywhere and all of the large windows are open, filling the area with cool, fresh air. Almost all of the furniture Vex can see is made of what she assumes to be reclaimed wood. It’s cluttered, but a lot of the stuff looks expensive. It’s very Keyleth.

Up until, she notices with a laugh, a green, frosted glass bong sitting on the coffee table.

“Subtle,” Vex jokes, nodding toward it.

Keyleth’s eyes open wide, and she runs over, opening a drawer in a table next to the couch and shoving it in there. “I’m so sorry,” she stammers, “we don’t usually have guests - it’s usually just the two of us, so I don’t have to worry about it.”

“It’s fine,” Vex interrupts, and she smiles even more to let Keyleth know she’s not put off by it. “I mean, I used to. It’s been a long time though.”

“Would you want to try it again?” Keyleth offers, still sitting on the floor next to the open drawer.

“What the hell, why not?” Vex says, setting down the dollar store bags she'd brought up from the car. She sits down on the couch next to where Keyleth is sitting on the floor.

Keyleth pulls some weed out of the drawer and packs the bowl with the kind of deft ease Vex had always wished she’d had when people watched her do this. She holds it out to Vex. “Guests first!”

“Go ahead,” Vex insists, “I need to text my brother anyway.”

Keyleth shrugs, lighting the bowl and leaning her head over it, while Vex pulls out her phone.

_ To: Vax’ildan _ _   
_ _ I’m at Keyleth and Percy’s apartment, I think we’re going to get high. Sorry I didn’t invite you. I’ll check in soon. Love you. _

As much as she wants to seem laid back, there’s no way she’s getting high with people she doesn’t know that well without letting Vax know.

Keyleth exhales, sending a plume of smoke into the room, then passes the bong and lighter to Vex.

Hoping she doesn’t fuck it up, she takes the bong from Keyleth. She - gratefully - manages to not cough as she exhales. 

Keyleth is lighting some incense (because  _ of course she is _ ), so Vex offers the bong to Percy, sitting on an armchair next to the couch.

“Oh no, Percy doesn’t,” Keyleth starts, but Percy takes it anyway.

He shrugs a little. “You only offered the one time,” Percy says. “I’m glad you didn’t push it - but I admit I’ve been curious. How do I…?”

Vex moves over, crouching next to the armchair. “I’ll light it, you just worry about breathing.”

Percy nods, makes a face like he’s about to go to war, then leans his head over the top of the bong.

When he exhales, Percy  _ does _ cough, and Vex would have felt bad about laughing if Keyleth hadn’t laughed way louder.

Keyleth puts on some music and they pass the bong around another time. Percy coughs again, more this time, and there’s something about him being surrounded by smoke that feels weirdly fitting. 

A little hot, if she’s being honest.

She opens her eyes wide at the thought, staring at the blank TV screen in front of her. She’s not doing this.

Keyleth disappears for a second, leaving Percy and Vex in silence, save for the quiet music. When she returns, it’s with three tall glasses of water and some cut up vegetables.

“I love carrots,” Percy says quietly and with so much gravity in his voice that Vex can’t help but giggle. He takes a few baby carrots from the tray and bites into them, slowly and deliberately. “How will I know if it worked? If I’m high?”

Vex and Keyleth just laugh. Percy frowns at them.

After a while, Percy slides off of the armchair onto the floor, so he can continue snacking on the carrots without having to get up. Keyleth sits with her knees pressed to her chest at one edge of the couch, and Vex lays down across the rest of it.

Keyleth and Vex talk. Vex tells Keyleth about her own time at college, studying Child and Youth Care, leaving out all the unpleasant details. She talks about Vax and Trinket, the two most important people in her life.

Keyleth tells Vex that she’s an international student, that her community made a lot of money but didn’t have much to spend it on. They were mostly self-sufficient and sold the excess. Once a generation, she explains, they use the money to send someone off to school to learn about the world.

“My mom never came back when it was her turn,” Keyleth admits, her head laying against the back of the couch, tilted up at the ceiling, “so this was so scary, coming here. I’m so grateful I met Percy so I didn’t have to do this alone.”

At the mention of Percy’s name, both Vex and Keyleth turn toward him. Vex hadn’t noticed, but Percy hasn’t said anything in a long time.

He’s just staring into space with a dazed, distant look on his face.

Keyleth jumps down from the couch and crouches in front of him. She puts her hands on his shoulders and stares into his face.

“Percy,” she says, urgently, “Percy, it’s Keyleth. Eyes, okay? Look at me.”

Vex just stares, watching Keyleth jump into action like a paramedic at a car accident. She looks practiced. Vex wonders how often this happens.

Keyleth isn’t paying Vex any mind. She’s just keeping her hands on Percy’s shoulders.

“Percy, I need you to talk to me, okay? What do you need?”

Percy opens his mouth, then closes it. Keyleth just waits. When he opens it again, he says, “I’m fine.”

“Percy,” Keyleth warns.

“I’m really fine,” Percy insists. “I thought about getting up to get some of that hummus for the veggies but didn’t want to interrupt and by the time you two paused for a second I forgot what I was going to ask. Then you were here and I forgot again and didn’t know how to say the thing about the hummus.”

Keyleth just stares at him.

“I’m sorry if I worried you,” he says, his voice just full of sincerity.

Vex can’t help it. She loses it laughing, and when she looks over, Keyleth is laughing too. Percy smiles a little.

Vex watches as Keyleth lightly punches Percy’s shoulder. “You had me really worried! Don’t you ever do that again!”

“Do you want that hummus?” Percy asks instead.

Vex just keeps laughing.

 

After a few hours (and half a container of hummus), Vex is ready to leave. Keyleth orders a taxi from her phone and Vex is feeling too happy to argue about letting Keyleth pay for it.

She spends the ride home with her head leaning against the window, thinking about Percy. Keyleth made it seem like that happens a lot. She wonders if he’s thinking about his family when that happens.

She pushes the thought from her mind and instead focuses on how happy she’ll be to see Trinket when she gets home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to get new chapters out every Sunday, but we'll see how that goes.
> 
> Thanks everyone who let me know they enjoyed the first chapter! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This is the first thing I've written in a while, but I'm really excited about it and have most of it planned out (as well as ideas for other, shorter stories within this AU). Let me know if you think it's worth continuing!
> 
> And thanks so much to [Strongbut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/strongbut), who spent hours and hours brainstorming ideas with me, and got me into Critical Role in the first place! This would absolutely not exist at all without her ideas and insight, so thank you very much! <3


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